Chapter 13 - The Man Gideon Refused to Kill
Gideon did not speak for several minutes.
Hannah screamed at federal agents.
Evelyn called Dana.
Marcus checked every channel.
None of it mattered.
Ava and Sophie were gone.
Again.
The federal safe house had been breached by men wearing legitimate credentials.
Two agents were injured.
One disappeared.
Silas’s reach was deeper than anyone understood.
Hannah turned on Gideon.
“You promised!”
The words struck him harder because Ava had said the same thing.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t!”
She hit his chest.
Marcus moved.
Gideon raised a hand to stop him.
Hannah hit Gideon again.
“You told them they were safe!”
He let her.
Then she stopped.
Her anger collapsed into grief.
Gideon held her shoulders.
“I will bring them back.”
“Don’t promise.”
He nodded.
“Then I’ll say this instead.”
His voice became steady.
“I will do everything I have left.”
At 10:00 the next morning Gideon prepared to surrender to Silas.
Marcus refused to accept it.
“You walk in alone, you die.”
“Maybe.”
“And the girls?”
“Maybe live.”
“That’s not a plan.”
“No. It’s a trade.”
Evelyn entered.
“Ren would hate this.”
Gideon looked at her.
“Using her against me?”
“I’m reminding you who she was.”
“She was four.”
“She knew you.”
Gideon looked away.
Evelyn came closer.
“She was afraid when you got angry.”
He stiffened.
“She once asked me why Daddy looked sad whenever people were scared of him.”
Gideon stared.
“I never knew.”
“I didn’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because I was angry too.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“I made you into a villain because I needed someone to blame.”
“You weren’t wrong.”
“You weren’t the only person responsible.”
Silence.
She touched the sunflower pendant.
“If you walk into that warehouse planning to die, you are still letting Silas decide the ending.”
Gideon looked at Marcus.
“What alternative?”
Marcus placed a small device on the table.
“Live transmitter.”
“Silas will search me.”
“Not this.”
“What is it?”
“Bone-conduction mic embedded in dental resin.”
Gideon raised an eyebrow.
“You put a microphone in a tooth?”
“Technology is beautiful.”
“What does it do?”
“Everything you hear, we hear.”
“Tracking?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“We follow audio clues.”
Gideon considered.
Hannah entered.
She had not slept.
“I’m going too.”
“No.”
“I’m not asking.”
“This time you are.”
“My daughters—”
“Need one parent who isn’t inside Silas’s warehouse.”
That stopped her.
Gideon continued.
“If I fail, they need you outside.”
Hannah’s eyes filled.
“Then don’t fail.”
At 11:57, Gideon entered the warehouse alone.
Silas waited.
No visible guards.
No girls.
“Where are they?”
Silas smiled.
“Still impatient.”
“Where?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
Silas nodded toward a screen.
Ava and Sophie appeared in another room.
Alive.
Gideon exhaled.
“Now we talk.”
Silas gestured toward a chair.
Gideon remained standing.
“What do you want?”
“I already told you.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Silas walked toward the window.
“Because twenty years ago, I thought we were building something together.”
“We were.”
“No. I was building. You were changing.”
Gideon stared.
“When Ren was born, you became weak.”
“I became a father.”
“Exactly.”
Silas turned.
“You suddenly decided there were lines we should not cross. Weapons were wrong. Certain clients were wrong. Violence became inconvenient.”
“You wanted an empire without limits.”
“I wanted the empire we agreed to build.”
Gideon laughed softly.
“So you tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“And killed Ren.”
Silas’s face changed.
For the first time, genuine pain.
“I didn’t know she was in the car.”
“Yet you covered it up.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened Hannah.”
“Yes.”
“Killed Hurst.”
Silas looked away.
“Yes.”
“And now children again.”
Silas’s jaw tightened.
“You think I enjoyed any of this?”
Gideon stared.
“That may be the most disgusting thing you’ve said.”
Silas pulled a gun.
“Don’t.”
Gideon did not move.
“Do you know what I hated most after Ren died?”
Silas asked.
“What?”
“You became a martyr.”
Gideon almost laughed.
“A martyr?”
“Everyone whispered about poor Gideon Crosswell. The monster who lost his little girl.”
Silas stepped closer.
“You had spent years creating the world that killed her, and somehow people pitied you.”
Gideon said quietly, “I hated myself more than you ever could.”
Silas stopped.
“That’s supposed to absolve you?”
“No.”
Gideon looked at the weapon.
“Nothing absolves me.”
That answer seemed to confuse Silas.
“I moved weapons. I hurt people. I built an organization where men like you could hide crimes behind my name.”
Gideon stepped closer.
“I am guilty.”
Silas’s hand tightened.
“But I did not kill Ren.”
“No?”
“You did.”
Silas raised the gun.
Gideon continued.
“You had a choice after the crash.”
Silas’s eyes narrowed.
“You could have admitted what happened.”
“You would have killed me.”
“Maybe.”
“You see?”
“But instead you killed more people. Threatened children. Corrupted doctors. Police. Officials.”
Gideon’s voice hardened.
“You keep saying my darkness forced you to become dark.”
He pointed toward the screen with Ava and Sophie.
“They prove you wrong.”
Silas looked.
“Those girls had every reason to become cruel. Instead, one carried soup money for her sister and the other remembered a dying child’s kindness.”
Silas’s face twisted.
“Enough.”
“You hate Ren because a four-year-old became better than both of us.”
Silas struck Gideon with the weapon.
Gideon fell.
Marcus heard everything through the transmitter.
Outside, teams moved closer.
Silas stood above Gideon.
“I could kill you now.”
“Yes.”
“And end this.”
“No.”
Silas frowned.
Gideon wiped blood from his lip.
“You could kill me. But the truth is already outside.”
Silas aimed.
A door opened.
Ava stood there.
Silas turned.
“How did you—”
Ava held keys.
“You left them too close.”
Sophie appeared behind her.
Silas moved toward them.
Gideon tackled him.
The gun slid across the floor.
They fought.
Years of anger collapsed into seconds.
Gideon gained control.
He reached the gun first.
Silas lay beneath him.
“Do it,” Silas whispered.
Gideon aimed.
Outside, Marcus shouted through the warehouse.
“Gideon!”
Silas smiled.
“You know you want to.”
Gideon looked at him.
Ren’s killer.
The man responsible for the worst day of his life.
One movement.
One trigger.
Justice, revenge, grief—all pretending to be the same thing.
Then Sophie spoke from behind him.
“Mr. Gideon?”
He turned.
She was crying.
“Please don’t.”
Gideon looked back at Silas.
Slowly, he lowered the weapon.
Silas’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
Gideon stood.
“You don’t get to make me like you.”
Police and federal agents stormed the room.
Silas was arrested.
Hannah ran inside minutes later and collapsed around her daughters.
Gideon stood alone beside the window.
Marcus approached.
“It’s over.”
Gideon watched agents handcuff Silas.
“No.”
“What?”
Silas looked back.
And smiled.
Then Gideon understood.
Thomas Vane was arrested.
Silas was captured.
But the third recording had not been released.
And Silas wanted Gideon to hear it.
From across the room, Silas called:
“Midnight, Gideon.”
May you like
Gideon stared.
“You’re finally going to learn what Ren was trying to tell you.”
